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We consider the determinants and consequences of a source of utility that has received limited attention from economists: people's desire for the beliefs of other people to align with their own. We relate this ‘preference for belief consonance’ to a variety of other constructs that have been explored by economists, including identity, ideology, homophily, and fellow-feeling. We review different possible explanations for why people care about others' beliefs and propose that the preference for belief consonance leads to a range of disparate phenomena, including motivated belief-formation, proselytizing, selective exposure to media, avoidance of conversational minefields, pluralistic ignorance, belief-driven clustering, intergroup belief polarization, and conflict. We also discuss an explanation for why disputes are often so intense between groups whose beliefs are, by external observers' standards, highly similar to one-another.

This article recovers “evangelical toleration” as a neglected tradition in early modern political thought with important consequences for contemporary political theory and practice. Many political theorists dismiss the prudential arguments made by “proto-liberal” thinkers like Roger Williams or John Locke in favor of toleration as a necessary precondition for evangelism and conversion as intolerant, unacceptably instrumental, and inessential to their deeper theories. By contrast, critics of liberalism treat them as smoking gun evidence for an imperial and civilizing mission underlying liberal toleration. I argue that both sides underestimate evangelical toleration’s genealogical and theoretical importance. Not only were evangelical considerations essential in shaping the particular institutions associated with toleration in England and America, the varieties of evangelical toleration represented by Williams and Locke shed significant light on the very different institutions—and intuitions—governing the expression of religious difference in liberal democracies today.

A seminal case study by Festinger found, paradoxically, that evidence that discontinued religious beliefs increased individuals' tendency to proselytize to others. Although this finding is renowned, surprisingly, it has never been subjected to experimental scrutiny and is open to multiple interpretations. We examined a general form of the question first posed by Festinger, namely, how does shaken confidence influence advocacy? Across three experiments, people whose confidence in closely held beliefs was undermined engaged in more advocacy of their beliefs (as measured by both advocacy effort and intention to advocate) than did people whose confidence was not undermined. The effect was attenuated when individuals affirmed their beliefs, and was moderated by both importance of the belief and open-mindedness of a message recipient. These findings not only have implications for the results of Festinger's seminal study, but also offer new insights into people's motives for advocating their beliefs.

Considerable academic attention has been dedicated to Michelangelo's purported self-portraits in the Last Judgment, Pauline Chapel, and Florentine Pietà. It is perplexing, then, that scholarship has fallen largely silent on the artist's portrait medal (1560) and has dismissed its elusive impresa as having 'no obvious application to Michelangelo'. This article considers how Michelangelo's portrait medal, and its impresa especially, should be understood as one of the artist's most public instances of self-fashioning. Taking Psalm 50:15 as his motto and a blind pilgrim as his image (likened to the soul and body, respectively, by Paolo Giovio), Michelangelo presents himself through the medal as a penitent artist-evangelist in the tradition of the Old Testament King David. The impresa also makes a bold statement of Michelangelo's potential as a religious artist, bearing witness to his belief that he would only be able to render service to God after he had been redeemed in the eyes of heaven. This conception of self is not unique to the medal, however, and explores similar themes to those found both in the writings of Savonarola and the artist's late poetry. Michelangelo's poetry and portrait medal are thus evidence of the artist's attempt to reconcile the conflicting interests of art and religion at the end of his life.

This article sets out to establish a taxonomy of Christian faith-based humanitarian agencies, challenging assumptions that such agencies are similarly informed by Christian theology and pursue a uniform mission. Christian principles and missionary efforts are central in the development of humanitarianism, and the agencies associated with the Christian tradition comprise a prominent and growing portion of international humanitarian agencies. Little, however, is known about how Christian faith-based agencies diverge from one another in their orientation and operations, how their theological tradition shapes their humanitarianism, and whether or how they are distinct from secular agencies. Examining the humanitarianism of Christian faith-based agencies in light of their theological roots, this article delineates three classifications of Christian faith-based agencies: Accommodative–Humanitarian, Synthesis–Humanitarian, and Evangelistic–Humanitarian agencies. The study demonstrates the importance of distinguishing not simply between faith-based and secular agencies, but among faith-based agencies themselves. Cet article se propose d'établir une taxinomie d'agences humanitaires basées sur la foi chrétienne, faisant défi aux présupposés que de telles agences sont informées de façon semblable par la théologie chrétienne et poursuivent une mission uniforme. Les principes chrétien et les efforts des missionnaires constituent une partie centrale dans le développement de l'humanitarisme, et les agences associées à la tradition chrétienne se composent d'une portion de premier plan et en croissance des agences humanitaires internationales. Très peu, cependant, est connu concernant la façon dont les agences basées sur la foi chrétienne divergent l'une de l'autre dans leur orientation et opérations, comment leur tradition théologique forment leur humanitarisme, et si ou comment elles sont distinctes de la mission laïque. En examinant l'humanitarisme des agences de la foi chrétienne à la lumière de leurs racines théologiques, cet article délimite trois classification de la foi chrétienne basées sur les institutions: institutions humanistes accommodantes, de synthèse et évangélistes. L'étude fait la démonstration de l'importance de la distinction non simplement entre les institutions se basant sur la foi et la laïcité, mais parmi les institutions basées elles-mêmes sur la foi. Dieser Artikel hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, humanitäre Organisationen, die auf christlichem Glauben basieren, zu klassifizieren und stellt dabei die Annahme, dass solche Organisationen auf christlicher Theologie basieren und diesselbe Mission verfolgen, in Frage. Christliche Prinzipien und missionarische Bemühungen stehen im Mittelpunkt der Entwicklung einer humanitären Einstellung und mit christlicher Tradition assoziierte Organisationen stellen einen bedeutenden und wachsenden Anteil unter internationalen humanitären Organisationen. Allerdings ist wenig drüber bekannt, wie Organisationen, die auf christlichem Glauben basieren, sich voneinander in Orientierung und Operation unterscheiden, wie deren theologische Tradition deren Humanität beeinflusst und ob oder wie sie sich von säkularen Organisationen unterscheiden. Die Humanität von auf christlichem Glauben basierenden Organisationen unter Berücksichtigung ihrer theologischen Wurzeln begutachtend, beschreibt dieser Artikel drei Gruppen von auf christlichem Glauben basierenden Organisationen: versorgend–humanitär, synthetisch–humanitär und evangelistisch–humanitär. Die Studie zeigt, wie wichtig es ist, nicht einfach zwischen auf Glauben basierenden und säkularen Organisationen zu unterscheiden, sondern auch unter den auf Glauben basierenden Organisationen selbst. Este trabajo pretende establecer una taxonomía de las organizaciones humanitarias religiosas cristianas y cuestiona las ideas de que estas organizaciones tienen en común su teología cristiana y persiguen una misión similar. Los principios cristianos y los esfuerzos misionarios son vitales para el desarrollo del humanitarismo y las organizaciones relacionadas con la tradición cristiana suponen una porción creciente y significativa de las organizaciones humanitarias internacionales. Poco se sabe sin embargo sobre qué es lo que diferencia a las agencias religiosas cristianas entre sí en cuanto a orientación y trabajos, cómo influye su tradición teológica en su humanitarismo y si se distinguen de las organizaciones seculares. Este trabajo, que analiza el humanitarismo de las organizaciones religiosas cristianas desde el punto de vista de sus raíces teológicas, esboza tres clasificaciones de organizaciones religiosas cristianas: las acomodativas-humanitarias, las sintéticas-humanitarias y las evangelistas-humanitarias. El estudio demuestra la importancia de distinguir no solo entre las organizaciones religiosas y seculares, sino entre las propias organizaciones religiosas.

Sociologists have long sought to understand the relationship between collective experiences and individual commitments. This article examines the short-term mission as an institutionalized religious experience, assessing its prevalence, predictors and impact on the religious trajectories of the youth who participate in them. Religiously devout adolescents are more likely than others to go on a short-term mission as are younger adolescents and those with very religious parents. Applying propensity score matching to a nationally representative longitudinal sample of American adolescents, we find that adolescents who go on a short-term mission between interview waves report increased religious participation and solidified religious beliefs. We use the example of this experience to emphasize the importance of considering religious experiences to develop more nuanced understandings of the way religion shapes the beliefs and behaviors of individuals.

Historians identify many connections between human rights and religion, including the influence of religious organizations on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Protestant ecumenical movement and American Protestantism played important roles in this regard. Historical analysis has so far taken insufficient account of another contemporaneous phenomenon important in terms both of religion and of rights—the British Empire. Its authorities typically offered a “fair field” to Christian missionaries irrespective of their nationality or denomination. They might also offer protection to religious minorities. In Egypt the situation was complicated. An Islamic country and a vital part of Britain's “informal” empire in the Middle East, Egypt was also an important area of missionary activity. To Egyptian government and British imperial representatives alike missionaries asserted their right and that of Christian converts to “religious liberty.” Focusing in part on Anglican mission in Egypt, this article examines the complex interplay of empire and Anglo-American ecumenism in missionary assertion of religious freedom. It also shows how imperialism and debates about “religious liberty” in Egypt and the Middle East influenced both “universal” and Egyptian national ideas about freedom of religion up to 1956.

The religious revival that followed the collapse of the USSR provides an excellent opportunity to compare the dynamics of projects of religious freedom with those of religious repression. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, this article documents the contradictory effects that both repressive and liberal policies and laws have on religious expression. Thus, while Soviet anti-religious policies undeniably caused much suffering and hardship, religious repression also contributed to an intensification of religious experience among certain Muslim and evangelical groups. And while religious freedom laws expanded the scope for public religious organization and expression, they also produced new inequalities between religious groups, as the cases of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan demonstrate. Ultimately, the article shows that the effects of liberal and repressive laws are far from straightforward and need to be analyzed in relation to the social context in which they are applied.

Critics argue that the politics of religious rights creates the problem of religious minorities instead of resolving it. The history of debate over conversion in India reveals that appeals to religious freedom can obscure and even suppress struggles against inequality and injustice.

A question that continues to attract researchers in the sociology of religion is what factors lead to religious growth. This article examines three well-known Christian religious groups that share many characteristics (i.e., supply-side factors): Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists. Membership data from these groups were gathered from 1960 through 2006 for most countries around the world. Membership growth rates were analyzed while controlling for country-level characteristics (i.e., demand-side factors). The results of this analysis indicate that both supply- and demand-side factors are important in determining growth. The strongest predictors of growth are: growth momentum in a country, the level of economic development, and several country-level characteristics. We conclude that socioeconomic development of countries ultimately leads to a secular transition, curtailing the growth of these religious groups.